Football Betting Strategy: Accumulators

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Football betting fans are always keen to make the most of an accumulator to boost their odds, but it’s important to remember that they come with an increased risk. There are ways to approach football accumulators to make them work for you, though, and a flexible accumulator strategy is perhaps the most interesting and useful way to make this tempting betting system pay.

Stick to What You Know

When building an accumulator, the starting point is to stick to what you know. It’s best to pick a market that you're the most comfortable with, which will more often than not be the ever-popular outright winner market. Some people prefer to bet on low risk favourites, piling them up in order to boost their multiples, whilst others fancy throwing in a few long shots to build some serious odds. For beginners, the only hard and fast rule is to avoid the temptation to bet on complete outsiders – the odds may be appealing, but the chances of success are far lower.

Avoid Low and High-Risk Bets

Playing the numbers with either low-risk bets (expecting regular, low wins) or high-risk bets (expecting occasional, big wins) is all well and good when you bet on a single match or market, but accumulators are an entirely different beast, with many different variables. For example, if you'd built an accumulator around the favourites winning all of the English Premier League matches on the weekend of the 24th August 2013, you'd have lost your bet four times over, along with any potential profit. The lesson here is that if you haven't got the stats to back up your selections, don't add the bet to your accumulator - you're only increasing your exposure to unexpected events.

Draw No Bet Market

In trickier weeks where perhaps you aren't sure of enough results to build a decent accumulator, the best advice is to throw the 'draw no bet' market into the mix, or even build your accumulator entirely around this market. Using the 'draw no bet' market for your football accumulator means that when the team you backed draws the match, the bet is void, and the stake moves over to the remaining matches as a smaller accumulator – a far better alternative to losing the lot.

Both Teams to Score Market

If you prefer the chance to receive bigger odds over the ability to hedge your bets, it’s best to try out a different market to the outright winner in the weeks that are more difficult to predict. The 'both teams to score' market is always a popular choice, especially when a number of the league’s top scoring teams face off against each other during the same weekend. You can boost your odds even further by building your betting slip around the 'first team to score', or even the 'first player to score'.

Now that you have a basic strategy for creating your next accumulator betting slip, head over to Bet365 Sports today to try it out. As one of the best UK sportsbooks, Bet365 Sports offers a whole range of accumulator options throughout the season, on both domestic and international leagues.